Mika wrote track in French castle

Mika wrote a song, 'Step With Me', in a French castle for his new 'Origin of Love' album

Mika wrote a track in a French castle for his new album.

The singer penned new song 'Step With Me' alongside co-writers Hilary Lindsey and Billboard in just one day at a special writing camp.

He told music streaming service Spotify: "You get put into different rooms of the castle, and you write a song and record it and by the evening you have to all sit in the grand hall and you play your demos in front of everybody.

"We got put into the little cottage with the damp and with the mice chasing everywhere and the ceiling falling in and we were trying to keep this fire lit in the corner of the room because we were freezing and Hilary Lindsey had a horrific hangover from about three boxes of cheap wine. "So the song that we wrote was comforting, sweet, and short because we didn't want to spend too much time on it. And so 'Step With Me' is the result of those limitations."

The singer also tackles more weighty issues on his third album 'The Origin of Love', such as on another song, 'Heroes', about a war veteran.

Mika explained: "It talks about a solider who comes back from the war and he looks physically unharmed and looks physical completely fine, but inside he's destroyed. Everyone looks at him and is like 'you're fine, look at you, you're not missing a limb.'

"It's inspired by a taxi driver that I had driving me from my place in London to the studio one day and he was telling me how he had spent a lot of time in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, and all the problems he encountered."

'The Origin of Love' is out now, to listen to Mika talk through his album track by track, visit http://open.spotify.com/user/1151624849/playlist/7bVnhTpAqDiGZYUyggnH2O